Salesforce rolls out new Slackbot AI agent as it battles Microsoft and Google in workplace AI

Key Takeaways

→ New Slackbot is a full agentic-AI rebuild of the old notification bot, available at no added cost on Business+ and Enterprise+ plans

→ Runs on Anthropic Claude for now, with additional model providers including Google Gemini planned this year

→ Tested by all 80,000 Salesforce employees: two-thirds tried it, 80% of those use it regularly, and satisfaction reached 96%

→ Employees report saving 2 to 20 hours per week; pilot customer Beast Industries saw one user save at least 90 minutes a day

→ Rollout reaches all eligible customers by the end of February 2026, with mobile availability completed by March 3

Salesforce on Tuesday launched an entirely rebuilt version of Slackbot, transforming the workplace assistant from a simple notification tool into what executives describe as a fully powered AI agent. The new Slackbot can search enterprise data, draft documents, and take action on behalf of employees — Salesforce’s most aggressive move yet to place Slack at the center of the agentic AI trend.

The Rebuild

The old Slackbot performed basic algorithmic tasks, reminding users to add colleagues to documents and suggesting channel archives. The new version is built around a large language model and a robust search engine that can access Salesforce records, Google Drive files, calendar data, and years of Slack conversations. Salesforce co-founder and Slack CTO Parker Harris was blunt: the old Slackbot was a little tricycle, and the new Slackbot is like a Porsche.

Powered by Claude

For now Slackbot runs on Anthropic Claude, chosen partly because it was the only LLM provider that could meet FedRAMP Moderate compliance when Slack began building the system. Harris said that exclusivity will not last: this year Slack will support additional providers. He cited Google Gemini as a likely next addition and left the door open for OpenAI. Salesforce stresses that it does not train models on customer data.

The Internal Test

Salesforce tested Slackbot with all 80,000 employees, making it the fastest adopted product in company history. The numbers are striking:

Two-thirds of employees tried the new Slackbot, with 80% of those using it regularly
96% satisfaction — the highest for any AI feature Slack has shipped
Employees report saving between 2 and 20 hours per week

Adoption was largely organic, driven by social sharing and a crowd-built Canvas of 250-plus shared prompt tips.

Enterprise Capabilities

In demonstrations, Slackbot correlated qualitative customer feedback with a dashboard image, surfaced open deals in Salesforce, generated a Canvas document, and found calendar availability to schedule a review meeting. Pilot customers include Beast Industries, Slalom, reMarkable, Xero, Mercari, and Engine. One Beast Industries employee reported saving at least 90 minutes a day, and Engine’s operations chief called it an absolute chaos tamer.

The Competitive Fight

The launch puts Slackbot directly against Microsoft Copilot in Teams and Google Gemini in Workspace. Slack chief product officer Rob Seaman pointed to context and convenience: it is right there in Slack, with a natural convenience affordance built in. Salesforce positions Slackbot as a future super agent that can coordinate other agents, with MCP-based tool orchestration on the roadmap.

What This Means

Slackbot ships at no extra cost on Business+ and Enterprise+ plans. The bet is that the future of enterprise work is conversational — and that the tool already embedded in daily workflows will win the workplace AI race, rather than another app employees have to learn.

Frequently Asked Questions

What can the new Slackbot do?

The rebuilt Slackbot is an AI agent that searches Salesforce records, Google Drive files, calendar data, and Slack conversation history, drafts documents, creates Canvas summaries, and takes follow-up actions such as finding meeting availability for stakeholders.

Which AI model powers the new Slackbot?

Slackbot currently runs on Anthropic Claude, chosen in part because it was the only provider able to meet FedRAMP Moderate compliance when development began. Salesforce says it will add more providers this year, starting with Google Gemini.

How much does Slackbot cost?

Slackbot is included at no additional cost for customers on Slack Business+ and Enterprise+ plans. Broader Salesforce data-access pricing changes could still raise costs for third-party apps that rely on Salesforce data.

How does Slackbot compare to Microsoft Copilot and Google Gemini?

Salesforce argues Slackbot wins on proximity and context: it sits inside Slack, where users already work, understands each user's permissioned data, and requires no setup, unlike Copilot in Teams or Gemini in Google Workspace.